the dock · day 904 · morning

Morning of Day 905

The rain slows to a drizzle as the tide reaches its lowest point, exposing the barnacles beneath the dock.

Kevin retrieved the half-sack of crushed lime from the porch tarp and carried it to the north piling, but his hands were clumsy with hunger and the lime scattered in the wind before he could form a proper barrier. Jenny, moving slowly on her bad ankle, reached the garden and inspected the north ridge soil pockets, finding the tension crack has widened and two of the three marked pockets show active weeping; she flagged them with stakes but could not test pH because the kit was with Kevin.

🔧 Kevin04:10

Going to check the north piling while the tide's out.

Walk to the dock and crouch at the north piling to inspect the shim and surrounding clay.

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's at the bottom. Good time to check the north piling shim before the water comes back up. The shim's been holding but the clay's been shifting.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:12

The clay's still bleeding. Look at the saturation around the base.

Walk to the edge of the dock and peer down at the north piling, leaning slightly to avoid putting weight on the ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

He's checking the shim, but he's not looking at the weeping clay. He only sees the timber, never the soil.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin04:12

Saturation line's higher. Clay's losing cohesion faster than the shim can compensate.

Crouch at the north piling, probe the clay around the base with the screwdriver to test depth of softening.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The clay's weeping darker than yesterday. Saturation line's crept up another inch. The shim's holding the piling plumb for now but the ground's turning to soup underneath.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:15

It's not just the shim. The whole pocket is turning to mush. We need to pack it with something.

Squat down near him, pointing to the dark, heavy slurry where the earth meets the wood, noting the way the water is pooling.

💭 peek at the thought

If that soil liquefies, the whole jetty goes into the surf. He's worried about a shim while the foundation is dissolving.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:15

Lime's the only thing that'll set in standing water. Got half a sack on the porch tarp. Need to work fast before the flood tide.

Stand, wipe hands on trousers, and walk back toward the cottage to retrieve the crushed lime sack.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. The whole pocket's going. Greenheart offcuts from the crate would take the load but they're heavy and the tide's turning in forty minutes. Need something that sets underwater, binds the slurry, buys time for a proper sister pile. Hydraulic cement's hardened in the bag. Bitumen membrane's gone. Marine epoxy's nearly empty. Could mix crushed lime with the slurry — pozzolanic reaction might firm it enough to hold through the next cycle.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:16

Don't just pour it. We need to create a barrier first or it'll just drift.

Limp after him toward the cottage, keeping a steady but slow pace to manage the throb in the ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right about the lime, but he's moving too fast. If we just dump it in, the current will wash it away before it can bind.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.